New Orleans Pelicans: Jrue Holiday Should Move to the Bench

The New Orleans Pelicans have the best starting five in the NBA, but there are compelling reasons to send Jrue Holiday to the bench.

There are some things about the New Orleans Pelicans that fall squarely under the cliché, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The Pelicans’ starting lineup has been one of the best in the NBA since Zion Williamson returned and will only get better as they develop further chemistry together.

They may have a long offseason to do it, as the threat of an NBA cancellation is looming after more than a month in hiatus.

This gives the New Orleans Pelicans plenty of time to look at their personnel, lineups and to see which players fit best in certain situations and lineups.

One thing the Pelicans must take a hard look at is the bench, as it had taken a nosedive in the weeks leading to the hiatus and was starting to become the weakness of an otherwise good team.

The Pelicans were building big leads only to cough them up and they had a hard time putting teams away in the second half.

This is largely because of the bench, which has some nice players but not nearly enough depth to propel the New Orleans Pelicans into the elite of the Western Conference.

If the Pelicans want to take that next step, they will need more consistency and production out of their bench unit.

Obviously they can address this need in free agency and the draft, but there are also internal moves that might get them there, such as moving Jrue Holiday to the bench.

Holiday is the consummate team player and would probably do whatever the New Orleans Pelicans ask him to do, but is it a good move?

There is a solid statistical case to be made for Holiday moving to the bench, but let’s break it down.